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After reading the book in 1993, ABC officials decided to produce a television piece for the "Day One" Monday night show hosted by Forrest Sawyer (link to view the show is below).

During the summer of 1993, ABC inteviewed several veterans of the Ia Drang battles in New York. In October '93, the Ia Drang Veterans, Forrest Sawyer, Terry Wrong (Producer), Quyen Thai (Asst. Producer), and two 2-person TV crews flew to Vietnam.

The veterans are listed below. Included are their military ranks, duty positions, and Ia Drang Battlefields they fought on:

Joe Galloway and Hal Moore stayed in touch with each other over the years and in 1976 shook hands on a promise to write a book on the X-Ray Battle. Both men were busy; Moore in the Army and Galloway with UPI - there was little time for research. By 1983, Moore had left the Army and his job at the Crested Butte Ski Area and was ready to do research. Galloway was still working with UPI but soon changed to a job in Washington, DC with U.S. News and World Report.

In April 1983, Moore and Galloway met for 3 days to plan details. They resolved to do three things:

In the summer of 1990, U.S. News sent Galloway and Moore to Hanoi to do research with Vietnamese military officials in connection with a story to be written on the 25th anniversary of the Ia Drang Battles - and hopefully to return to the Ia Drang with the PAVN commander. They could not pull off the Ia Drang visit but were able to talk at length with Sr. General Vo Nguyen Giap and Major General Hoang Phuong, Chief of PAVN Military History. Gen Phuong was on the ground in the Ia Drang Battles as a Lt. Col Historian. Also during that visit, they contacted Sr. General Chu Huy Man, who declined to talk with them. They believed that Man was the principal battle commander who was Moore's PAVN counterpart.

They talked with each officer for 5 hours; 15 hours total. it was not until they got to Hanoi that they learned that Lt. Gen An was the on-the-scene PAVN commander giving the orders at X-Ray and Albany as a "Sr. Lt. Col"; not then-Brigadier General Man.

In early 1991, Random House Publishers contracted with Moore and Galloway for a book on the Ia Drang. Whereas the Oct 1990 story covered primarily the X-Ray fight, the two coauthors agreed that the Albany battle had to be covered in detail also. Research and writing went into high gear that summer and fall. In November, they returned to Hanoi for research with each of the following:

Lt. General Nguyen Huu An (Operational Commander, Highland Forces in the Ia Drang as a Sr. Lt. Col)

Major General Hoang Phuong (Historian)

They talked with each officer for 5 hours; 15 hours total. it was not until they got to Hanoi that they learned that Lt. Gen An was the on-the-scene PAVN commander giving the orders at X-Ray and Albany as a "Sr. Lt. Col"; not then-Brigadier General Man.

In 1997, Hal Moore returned to the battlefield for one last trip with CAV veterans of the Ia Drang battles. The associated pictures show the landing zones just prior to being converted to agricultural use. Plantations exist on the two sites now.

Copyright

Copyright Hal Moore, Joe Galloway. Copyright for contributed photos retained by the respective owner. US Army combat camera footage and still pictures extracted from the footage is in the public domain. Site theme template created by DoubleMThemes.